#Miniscribe 30 Meg
13 messages in this thread
Brian,
Back in December I read several messages from you regarding a 30 meg.
Miniscribe hard drive that you bought from Hard Drives International. At that
time you had no docs and were having trouble formatting it. Did you ever get
the docs from Hard Drives International and were you able to format the drive &
get it working properly?
I'm looking for a 30 meg 3 1/2" hard drive, and the Miniscribe you bought is
one I'm considering. Also wondered how you felt about the place you bought it
from.
Thanks,
Claude
l Well, it turns out that the 30 meg Miniscribe is a 20 meg Miniscribe that has
gone through a better quality control and is therefore guaranteed to work with
an RLL drive controller. Nobody makes and RLL for the Amiga. My problems all
came from trying to format a 20 meg drive as a 30. I've been running the drive
for close to 2 months now with no trouble at all. Hard Drives International was
fine. They delivered quickly, and they accept technical support calls. I
never got the docs for the drive, but I'm not sure I ever asked for them, since
I got the critical info on the drive over the weekend here. Anyway, the
Miniscribe seems to be a really good drive, but if you need more than 20 meg,
you'll have to go to one of the bigger (40 or above) models.
-Brian
"NObody makes an RLL for the AMiga" C LTD will happily sell you an SCSI
controller, and an adapted 4070 which is an RLL controller. Then, with the
supplied software from them, you have a fast, high-density, RLL hd system.
–Ben–
An "adapted 4070". Hmmm — what was the 4070 adapted from?
WHOOPS! I didn't know that C LTD did an RLL. Do they supply that in ST 506 as
well as SCSI (or is the 4070 you mention the ST 506 flavor)?
-Brian
The 4070/SCSI combination is configured for an RLL st-506 drive. The SCSI
controller by itself will handle an RLL SCSI drive. If you have a Non-RLL
drive, then you get the SCSI/4000 combination. They can handle any combo that
you are likely to need. And (shameless plug) we wrote the driver software….
which of COURSE means it's good. <grin> The software, I mean. –Ben–
Thanks for the quick reply! One thing I forgot to ask – which model do you
have? There are adds in Computer Shopper for the MiniScribe 8425F listing it
as 20 meg, and the 8438F listed as 30 meg. I've seen MiniScribe's own adds
too, and they list two different models. The RLL makes it confusing since the
adds never say whether the quoted size is with or without RLL formatting.
Thanks again.
Claude
Claude,
The 8438 is the RLL certified 8425. You need an RLL controller to get
the full 30 Meg out of it. With a controller like the 2090, you only get 20
Meg from it since it is an MFM controller.
Every drive that can use RLL encoded data, can also use MFM encoded
data but not vice-versa.
Don
The 8438 is the same drive as the 8425, but with a higher level of quality
control to make sure it will work with RLL. So, if you are using the 2090, get
the 8425 and save a few bucks. I agree that it is irritating that the adds
never specify whether RLL is assumed in the drive size. Guess how I learned to
ask??
-Brian
Claude,
I just bought a 40 meg MiniScribe from HDI, and am happy both with it and the
company. The service was excellent; the gentleman took about fifteen minutes
to talk with me about my (admittedly strange) setup and what they would need to
send me to support it. He even gave me an unadvertised special, AND agreed not
to add the rider for credit card charges (none of which I asked for). The
drive arrived within one day of when he projected it should. Can't beat that.
Nor can you beat a 40 meg drive WITH controller and cables and shipping for
Thanks for the comments, Rick. What was the price – it got truncated from your
message? Is yours a 3 1/2 or 5 1/4? If it's 3 1/2, what model number? Did
they send you documentation on the drive?
Thanks for all the help.
Claude
Urp, it surely did get truncated! Hmm. Well, anyways, it was a 3650, WX1,
cables, and shipping for $387.
A 3650 is a 5 1/4 drive; I didn't care about size since it's an external for my
1000. Actually, I *DID* care about size: the 3.5's prices are higher. 8)
No documentation other than a two-sided product flier but, as a great man once
said, "I didn't ask for any". I didn't need any doc beyond what was on that
flier to install it and do the low level format.
Rick